Remington Begg
Social media plays an important role in inbound marketing, and when done correctly, it can drive traffic to your website, increase your reach, and bring in new leads. With 74% of online adults on social media, it's an effective way to reach your audience, interact with current and potential customers, and share valuable information about your brand and industry. But when done incorrectly, social media can damage your brand's reputation.
How to act on social media may seem obvious, but far too often, brands make mistakes. Although there's no one way write on social media, there are two important factors that many businesses seem to ignore: professionalism and consistency.
Below, we explain how these two factors will help you enhance your brand's image on social media.
Always be professional
We're all human, and we all make mistakes. Maybe you used "who" instead of "whom," or you added a comma in a place it wasn't needed. Do your best to proofread, but don't beat yourself up if you make a small mistake. However, it's important to remember that as a marketer, you're writing posts for a professional business. Although abbreviations, text message slang, and butchered spelling for the sake of word count may work on your personal page, it has no place on a brand's page. You'll immediately lose credibility, and it can even ruin your brand's reputation.
As marketers, we know that when a brand is tweeting or posting on Facebook that there's usually a team of marketers behind it. OMG lolz, nokidding right?! Believe it or not, not everyone knows this. There are many people out there that see a tweet from Barack Obama and actually think he is the one that wrote the tweet. And sometimes that's true, but most of the time, there's a team of social media marketers writing those posts. Even a small mistake could severely hurt Obama's reputation – even if he wasn't the one to actually write the post.
Whenever you're posting on social media for a brand, it's essential that you're mindful of what you write and how you write it. When it doubt, think to yourself, "if this was my company, is this how I'd want my brand portrayed on social media?"
Keep your messaging consistent
Do you have a schedule for when and how often you'll post? Is your voice consistent across all of your social media channels? Do you respond to negative feedback and criticism or do you delete the posts? Do your profile and cover photos show who you are and what your brand is all about?
These may seem like small, nitpicky details, but they're actually pretty important. One of the best (and easiest) ways to ensure that you're being consistent across social media is to have a strategy in place. Some of the things to address when creating your strategy include:
- Guidelines on how to respond to negative comments
- A folder of brand-related images and logos that you can use for profile pictures, cover photos, etc.
- An editorial calendar or posting schedule for all of your social media channels
- A list of frequently asked questions and the answers to them. You don't need to use these word for word, but it will help ensure that you're being consistent with your messaging.
- Additional content to share on social media – blog posts, images, infographics, videos, webinars, third-party content, etc.
Social media is one of the best ways to engage with your audience and enhance your brand's image, but it can also be incredibly detrimental. As marketers, we represent a brand (or even multiple brands) online, and it's important to mindful of how we post. If you're always professional and keep your messaging consistent, social media will be a powerful tool for your brand.
